The place for Financial Solutions, Tips, Trends

Thursday Jan 31, 2013

As companies
grapple with the aftermath of the financial crisis and a two-speed global
economy, they want leaders who can act as agents of change, provide comfort and
confidence in an uncertain world. With their unique combination of analytical,
technical and strategic capabilities, CFOs are very well placed to provide that. And, as the scope of CFO responsibility
broadens to include oversight over IT, HR, Procurement, and other areas in the
post-recession economy, many CFOs are becoming corporate catalysts for change,
heading up transformational projects that increase efficiencies, lower costs,
and improve business agility to better address ongoing economic volatility and
uncertainty….all to achieve finance process excellence. Find out more by reading the white paper, The
CFO as Corporate Catalyst: The Role of Finance Process Excellence, and
discover the next catalyst for change in your organization. Visit, C-Central, our website for CFOs, for more information on trends and challenges in the marketplace.

Tuesday Jan 29, 2013

Are you planning an ERP upgrade in the near future? Or is your organization about to embark on an ERP implementation? In either case, did you know that Oracle’s GRC advanced financial controls can play a vital role in the success of your project? Whether your goals are to accelerate project activities, or achieve lasting benefits after the project is completed, advanced financial controls will improve your organization’s bottom line.

But don’t take my word for it. Instead, read the Optimizing E-Business ERP projects with GRC’s advanced financial controls white paper and then ask yourself whether it is worth the risk to not use GRC’s advanced financial controls. Our esteemed colleagues at PwC wrote this white paper and provide great insight into the many challenges that confront organizations during ERP projects. They also highlight some compelling case studies such as how one company leveraged GRC’s advanced financial controls to achieve an estimated 20-percent cost savings by accelerating their configurations during an Oracle upgrade.Click here to access the white paper.

If you know about one of the successful organizations that have leveraged Oracle GRC’s advanced financial controls during an ERP project, please share your success story with the Oracle community by posting your comments to this blog.

Friday Jan 18, 2013

Are you lookingto automate the last mile of manual controls?If so, look to the advanced financial controls in Oracle’s Governance, Risk, and Compliance Application Suite just like Seadrill did.Seadrill, the experts in off-shore deep water drilling, was managing their controls in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.Realizing the need to automate their controls and achieve a high-level of global standardization, they implemented the Oracle GRC suite.Their internal audit teams can now spend more time on analyzing and understanding results of their data instead of spending time on manual controls.Hear their story.

Monday Jan 14, 2013

Under pressure to change
your financial business processes and not sure where to start? Is your enterprise resource planning (ERP)
delivering on its promise to streamline core business processes or are you
saddled with lengthy upgrades, legacy customizations, and complex integrations?

You might be wondering whether cloud
technology is a viable option – is it able to handle your security requirements
for your financial data, your business complexities, and your specific needs
for cost reduction. Is it really ready?

Yes, it is… Oracle cloud
offers a broad portfolio of software as a service applications, platform as a
service, and social capabilities, all on a subscription basis. It delivers
instant value and productivity for finance professionals through functionally
rich, integrated, enterprise cloud services.

With Oracle Cloud, you
get enterprise-grade application services based on best-in-class business
applications. Did you know that more
than 25 million users rely on Oracle Cloud every day!!

Learn about the world’s
most complete cloud for the enterprise at Oracle CloudWorld and in ONE DAY find
out how Oracle can transform your organization! Don’t miss out,registerfor
this FREE event today!

Friday Jan 11, 2013

What if you lost a tenth of a percent of your vendor spend to cash leakage?

It may not sound like much at first, but the losses quickly add up. Consider a firm that spends £1 billion and has a 5 percent profit margin. It would take an additional £20 million in incremental sales to recover cash lost due to leakage every year.

But what can you do? If you’re like most organisations, you’re already devoting too much time to manual tasks such as reviewing vendor invoices for errors, checking user access, and detecting unauthorised changes. Oracle recognises that this remaining element of manual controls presents an untapped opportunity for your organisation.

This is a must-attend event for finance executives who are ready to learn how they can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their process controls. And if you are considering an ERP systems upgrade, this is an even more opportune time to learn how advanced financial controls can improve your bottom line.

What is it
that CFOs need to create a successful twenty-first century finance organization?

CFOs must
become more strategic in their use of technology and even become a catalyst for
change. Becoming a strategic CFO necessitates a greater focus on leveraging IT—
looking forward as well as looking backward, focusing on the non-financial as
well as the financial elements of critical decisions, and operating with an
external and internal orientation. Read our executive strategy brief and
explore how CFOs can develop a twenty-first century finance organization by
getting the basics right, being more strategic, and becoming a catalyst for
change.

Friday Jan 04, 2013

Still working on your new year's resolution? If you are a CFO, you might
be thinking about finalizing the approach you’ll use to move your confidential
finance and operations functions to the cloud. On the other hand, you might be
unsure about whether you and your company are ready to take that leap of faith
into the new technology. You might be wondering
whether the cloud technology is able to handle your security requirements, your
access rules, your business complexities, and your specific needs for cost
reduction. Is it really ready?

Well, Steve Miranda, EVP, Oracle Applications
Development, has an opinion to share with you. In its 2013 Looking Forward
issue, Financial Executive magazine covers an article by Steve entitled
“ERP in the Cloud: CFOs See the Value of Running Enterprise Applications as a
Service.” In this piece, Steve states: “The fact that traditionally risk-averse CFOs are
open to moving their mission-critical ERP systems into the cloud should be a
clear indication to all companies that ERP cloud services are fast becoming the
go-to strategy for finance executives looking to access the latest technologies
quickly and cost-effectively to support their corporate objectives.”

In the article, Steve talks about Oracle ERP
customers, such as Carrie Dolan, Chief Financial Officer of Lending Club and Dan
Knutson, Chief Financial Officer of Land O’ Lakes, making cloud and managed
cloud choices.

Thursday Jan 03, 2013

Happy New Year! At
the start of every new year, many of us decide to make a few ‘resolutions’ hoping
to bring some change for the good to both our personal and professional
lives. Personally, I've resolved to be
more active and have signed up to run a 10K race as part of the Long Island
Marathon Weekend here in New York in May…so let the training begin!

Professionally,
I've resolved to be more active in
social media and provide more insights to those of you searching for financial
solutions, tips, and interesting events to attend. To begin with here's some insightful videos from a few CFOs who shared what they are going to
focus on in 2013. Listen as they discuss
everything from Cloud, GRC, Big Data, Talent and Consolidation.